Daniel Menzel is too good not to be playing AFL in 2019 despite his pressure shortcomings

FOR all his shortcomings in the tackling and pressure stakes — and there are many — delisted Geelong forward Daniel Menzel is still far too good a player, surely, not to be on an AFL list in 2019. Which clubs would he suit?

Daniel Menzel is too good not to be on an AFL list next year. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

DANIEL Menzel was at Fenway Park on Thursday ticking off a bucket list item at the first game of baseball’s World Series.

If Menzel was a baseballer he would be more likely to crack a homer over Fenway’s famed Green Monster than hit a sacrificial fly ball to get a teammate home.

But if Menzel is big on matchwinning moments and short on team defence, it is still hard to see why he currently has no footballing home.

Geelong on Wednesday delisted a player who has kicked 100 goals in three years, with St Kilda and the Bulldogs having already declined his free agency services.

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Yet if he eventually finds himself without an AFL club next year it will be the ultimate example of football’s new pressure-based game.

Put simply, Menzel is too good a player not to find himself a home for 2019.

But increasingly, clubs just aren’t willing to put up with obvious shortcomings no matter the overwhelming strengths of a player.

Menzel, 27, has kicked those 100 goals from 50 games in the past three years, his red-hot start to 2018 (14 goals in four weeks) hobbled by a groin injury that violently objected to injections from Cats doctors.

Daniel Menzel with former teammate Mark Blicavs at Fenway Park. Picture: Instagram

In that period only 21 players across the entire competition have kicked 100 goals, Menzel joining elite company in the medium sizers to achieve that feat — Eddie Betts, Luke Breust, Robbie Gray, Toby Greene and Mark LeCras.

Despite perceptions Geelong’s forward line pressure is excellent — sixth-best in the competition this year, second-best in the competition last year.

In that early four-week stretch Menzel’s forward pressure was absolutely appalling — in three of those four games he recorded a pressure points rating of five, which is effectively no pressure at all.

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The point is that when he kicks goals — four against Melbourne, four against Hawthorn, five against St Kilda — the lack of pressure doesn’t matter.

If he was a 195cm forward perhaps everything would be different given he is an elite contested mark and elite mark inside 50.

But his pressure as a general forward — a player category expected to tackle — continues to be the worst in the competition.

Daniel Menzel is too good not to be on an AFL list next year. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Of all forwards in the competition in the last two years he averages 13.8 pressure points, behind only Jack Redpath (retired), Patrick McCartin and Ben Reid.

In the last two years he averages the eight-least tackles, behind tall forwards McCartin, Redpath, Josh Schache, Eric Hipwood, Reid, Ben Brown and Tim Membrey.

His last game of the season — the eight-possession, zero-goal final against Melbourne — was his worst of the year.

Yet a month earlier his sublime inboard kick to Tom Hawkins ended with Zach Tuohy’s matchwinning goal, with few players capable of Menzel’s execution or vision.

It is clearly too late to get Menzel to change, his pressure points up marginally this year but his tackles dropping from 1.4 per game to just 1.1.

Surely a club like Gold Coast or Carlton, desperate for players with x-factor, marketability and goal power, have to consider if he suits their list.

Footy has changed so much in a decade — let alone 100 years — but if the high-goals/low pressure player is going out of style, surely it isn’t obsolete just yet.

Originally published as Daniel Menzel is too good not to be playing AFL in 2019 despite his pressure shortcomings